There are often sharp contrasts
in how we perceive ourselves and how others see us. There is no
greater example of this than the Prince of Wales, who considers
himself the most misunderstood man of modern times. Maybe it is so.
There are those who admire him in full measure while others have
reservations. In some ways it is a pity that this very caring and
earnest man was born with a princely title. As such, it was
expected of him to fulfil certain prescribed roles as heir to the
throne. In his case there is the additional dilemma that he has
carved out a useful role as Prince of Wales, involved with copious
enterprises. He has to work out how to dovetail this into his
future role as monarch, with all the contrary demands this will
impose.

Much of the good he has done has
been eclipsed, in the public mind, by his two marriages. Both have
been the subject of considerable controversy and divisiveness in
the past, though there is no doubt that after years of turmoil, a
calm plateau has finally been reached. Had he been a private
individual, no one would have taken much interest in whom he
married, or, indeed, whether he married at all.

Style Icon

Only because he is a member of
the Royal Family do people also take an interest in how he dresses.
The front-cover portrait of Prince Charles [see Issue 41 of The
Rake] puts me in mind of the imposing David Wilkie
portrait of George IV in Royal Stewart tartan,
painted to mark his first visit to Scotland in 1822. In this
instance, the Prince of Wales looks equally magnificent, in the
uniform of Colonel-in-Chief of the Toronto Scottish Regiment (Queen
Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s Own). If his fashion sense had to be
summed up in a word, that word would be ‘conventional’. The Prince
of Wales rarely appears without a tie. He
wears smartly cut suits from Anderson &
Sheppard, on Savile Row, to whom he was
directed soon after his first marriage, by the Princess of Wales.
He has remained loyal to them for more than 30 years, and favours
their double-breasted
jackets. He likes the double vents at the back
of his suits, a style invented by Frederick Scholte. Mr. Hitchcock,
their top cutter, will still come out of retirement to fit Prince
Charles, visiting him at Clarence House.

Anderson &
Sheppard also provides him with his morning
dress suits. Like other members of the Royal Family, he wears the
white slips in the black waistcoat, which delineates the tie
better. (Tailors have been known to say to clients: “We don’t get
much call for that these days, Sir.”) Royalty have a habit of
hanging on to their clothes. The Duke of Windsor wore the same suit
in which he married in 1937 at Princess Marina’s funeral in 1968
(and it still fitted him perfectly). The morning coat Prince
Charles wore at his wedding in 2005 was made seven years before,
and his fawn-coloured overcoat was made in 1987. At Royal Ascot,
where the Prince can be slightly more rakish, he wears a grey
morning suit but with a black top hat. Some of his suits have been
patched.

When travelling abroad in hot
climates, the Prince has been known to wear a lightweight,
light-coloured suit, even sometimes when adorned with his medals.
He has never learnt how to avoid being accosted with unconventional
headgear on his overseas visits, so there is a host of photographs
of him variously adorned with Red Indian feathers, Arab headgear,
or J.R. Ewing hats. His shirts still come from Turnbull &
Asser, to whom he gave his Royal Warrant in
1982. A fine firm, established in 1885, the cutters also visit him
in a variety of places to measure him as quickly and efficiently as
possible. His shoes (and riding boots) come from John Lobb in St.
James’s Street, where they retain ‘lasts’ for many
years.

In February 1971 Charles
attended the annual dinner of the Master Tailors’ Benevolent
Association. He entered the Europa Hotel wearing a shooting jacket
in tweed and
with his hands behind his back. He told the guests that his style
of dressing had attracted contradictory comment. “Recently I was
described as being dressed as an out-of-work parson,” he said.
“Another time I was described as one of the best-dressed men in the
world. I wonder how they decide. I think they make it up in the
bar.” He then told the guests that it was sometimes
thought that he and his father both stood with their hands behind
their backs as if it were some kind of hereditary trait. “The
answer is, we both have the same tailor [Edward Watson at that
time] … He makes the sleeves so tight, we can’t get our hands out
in front,” he said in jest. More seriously, he added: “When I go
abroad, I am, in a sense, showing what is the best British
tailoring, and I know at least I can rest content that I am
standing up in a well-cut shabby suit.”

The Prince was responding to an
attack inThe Tailor and
Cutter. Karl Dallas had
accused him of promoting the cult of shabbiness. Dallas said he was
not as bad as some aristocrats, who looked as though they had
escaped from aCarry
Onfilm, that his suits
were well made and that he looked splendid when in uniform. But
turn-ups were an issue. Sometimes he wore them, sometimes he did
not: “It would be pleasant to conclude that he was
conspicuously changing back to turn-ups like the rest of his
generation, but we fear that we are in fact seeing survivals of
earlier suits not yet completely superseded or worn
out.”

Dallas went on to say that his trouser widths were the same as
they would have been a decade ago, that the seats were as baggy as
those worn by an old man, and that the ‘boxy’ style of his jackets
were thrown out of proportion by his fondness for the
then-fashionable wide ties. Patrick Grant, of Norton & Sons,
once said: “Prince Charles has always sat tantalisingly on that
boundary between hip and square. The haircut and the
double-breasted suit would pass muster in either camp, but you
always get a sense that he is holding something back, that
somewhere not far from this there is the spirit of the great
reveller Edward VII fighting to come out.”

It would be wrong to suggest that Prince Charles is a
style-setter like Edward VII, and I remember the Duke of Windsor’s
Private Secretary, John Utter, saying: “If you or I wore the kind
of clothes the Duke wears, we would look ridiculous, but he gets
away with it.” He was referring to the loud checks and the bright,
unconventional colours often worn by the Duke of Windsor even in
old age. Prince Charles still wears the kind of clothes that
his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, wears, as well as the other male
members of the Royal Family: smart, conventional and appropriate
for his role and station in life, but above all the best that
British tailors can produce.

Philanthropy

It was Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, who first
identified that one of the roles of the Royal Family should be to
undertake charitable work. Thus figures such as Princess Helena
founded nursing homes and allied themselves to nursing
organisations. This belief has extended to the present day. Whole
books have been written about Prince Charles’s charitable
enterprises and his ‘mission’. Prince Charles was keen from an
early age to make a contribution. At all times he has wished to
emulate his father, and many of his initiatives follow from what
the Duke of Edinburgh himself did, in particular in the fields of
inspiring young people to achieve more and pointing out the dangers
that so-called civilisation is causing to the environment — green
issues and saving the planet for future generations.

On leaving the Royal Navy in 1976, he became President of the
King George’s Jubilee Fund. He set up the Prince’s Trust, and
eventually the funds of the former were transferred to it. This has
been immensely successful, its aim to give disadvantaged young
people a start or a new start in life. From this, numerous other
trusts and organisations have been started, including Business in
the Community, Seeing is Believing (which takes top executives to
see what is happening at ground level), The Prince of Wales’s
Institute of Architecture, his Drawing School, and a host more.
These organisations are involved with inner cities, Islam, business
leaders, study support, youth business, holiday camps and
disability (to cite but a few).

The Prince was sometimes
criticised for supporting the traditionally ‘un-supportable’ —
young offenders, the illiterate, drug addicts, the hopeless. There
are countless examples of people who had given up on being given a
second chance.He is a great catalyst and convener. He is one of a
handful of people (former U.S. President Bill Clinton is another)
who can get people round a table. In 2009 he held a summit for his
Prince’s Rainforest Project, with Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy,
Kevin Rudd, Silvio Berlusconi, Hillary Clinton and others.An
effective example of constructive ‘interference’ was his appearance
in person to experience the floods in Somerset, south-west England,
in 2014. Politicians soon followed in his footsteps, and £140
million was granted to aid the damage.His tentacles stretch across
the Commonwealth and into countries such as Romania. In Canada
there is a well-sponsored organisation, Prince’s Charities Canada,
that noted that in 2012 Canadians got first-hand experience of
seeing what four decades of charitable work had
achieved.

Prince Charles often feels he
has pulled a short straw in life. His mother, the Queen, will be a
hard act to follow. His son, Prince William, is popular, and every
appearance of young Prince George [and now Princess Charlotte] is
welcomed with gooey-eyed delight. Prince Charles is held in high
esteem by many who have worked with him on his projects. He is a
man of taste and culture, and his reign might prove most
interesting. His potential may have a fascinating late-life
flowering. It is extremely unlikely that Prince Charles will behave
as ‘King Charles III’ in the recent West End production — forced to
abdicate for being too political and refusing to sanction
legislation passed by parliament. He is well aware of the
constitutional restraints placed on a monarch. For a long time he
has realised that his principal contribution to this country is as
Prince of Wales.

Originally published in Issue
41 of The Rake. Subscribe here to
read the full story.